“More or less,” replied the Infanta; “a little light, a little absent; but, on the whole, a good enough young man.”

“Why have you recommended him to the King of Poland, instead of recommending him to me directly?”

“To the King of Poland!—­I?  I have not written to him since I congratulated him on his succession.”

“Then, madame, you have been deceived in this matter, since I have your last letter in my hands.  Here it is; I return it to you.”

The princess read the letter with attention; her astonishment was immense.

“My signature has been used without authority,” she said.  “Brisacier alone can be guilty, being the only one interested.”

This new kind of ambitious man was summoned; he was easily confounded.  The King ordered him to prison, wishing to frighten him for a punishment, and at the end of some days he was commanded to quit France and go and be made duke somewhere else.

This event threw such ridicule upon pretenders to the ducal state, that I no longer dared speak further to the King of the hopes which he had held out to me; moreover, the things which supervened left me quite convinced of the small success which would attend my efforts.

CHAPTER IX.

Compliment from Monsieur to the New Prince de Dombes.—­Roman History.—­The Emperors Trajan, Marcus Aurelius, and Verus.—­The Danger of Erudition.

Monsieur, having learnt what his cousin of Montpensier had just done for my Duc du Maine, felt all possible grief and envy at it.  He had always looked to inherit from her, and the harshest enemy whom M. de Lauzun met with at his wedding was, undoubtedly, Monsieur.  When M. le Duc du Maine received the congratulations of all the Court on the ground of his new dignity of Prince de Dombes, his uncle was the last to appear; even so he could not refrain from making him hear these disobliging words,—­who would believe it?—­“If I, too, were to give you my congratulation, it would be scarcely sincere; what will be left for my children?”

Madame de Maintenon, who is never at a loss, replied:  “There will be left always, Monseigneur, the remembrance of your virtues; that is a fair enough inheritance.”

We complained of it to the King; he reprimanded him in a fine fashion.  “I gave you a condition so considerable,” said he, “that the Queen, our mother, herself thought it exaggerated and dangerous in your hands.  You have no liking for my children, although you feign a passionate affection for their father; the result of your misbehaviour will be that I shall grow cool to your line, and that your daughter, however beautiful and amiable she may be, will not marry my Dauphin.”

At this threat Monsieur was quite overcome, and anxious to make his apologies to the King; he assured him of his tender affection for M. le Duc du Maine, and would give him to understand that Madame de Maintenon had misunderstood him.